Abilities and effects

Abilities are what characters do in a fight, from a sword swing to a healing spell. You build them on your sim’s website, attach effects and statuses, and give them to classes, races, perks and items. Use this guide when you add an ability or work out why one misbehaves.

Where it lives

Game Design › Abilities › Abilities: every ability, what it does and who has it. Search by name, description or #id.
Game Design › Abilities › Formulas: the formulas abilities roll.
Game Design › Combat & effects › Effects: behaviours, the ready-made effects an ability can carry. Timed effects and Effect reference sit beside it.

Admins can look at abilities. Changing them needs a role with permission to edit abilities.

Build an ability

Press New ability, name it and press Add. Or open a similar ability and press Copy. A copy has the effects and statuses but not who has it, so rename it.
Work down the sections. Some fields only show once the switch above them is on.
Press Save. Effects and statuses save as you add them.
Give it to a class, race, perk or item.
Test it.

The save is refused if Automatic hits is more than Attack rolls per target, or Minimum range is beyond Maximum range.

The fields

Section	Field	What it does
Basics	Usable in combat	Off: never offered in a fight.
Targeting	Who it targets	Only other targets, Self or others or Only themselves.
	Which team	Either team, The other team or Their own team.
	How many targets	How many it can target.
	Range type	Melee, ranged or both. Cover and weapon quirks go by it.
Costs and timing	Energy cost	Energy, or Action Points where the game system uses Energy as AP.
	HP cost, Mana cost	Paid by the user.
	Cooldown (turns)	0 is none.
	AP shown on item pages	Display only.
	Ends the user’s turn	The turn ends once it’s used.
Rolling to hit	Rolls to hit	Off: it always hits.
	Attack formula, Defence formula	The user rolls the attack, the target rolls the defence.
	Attack rolls per target, Automatic hits	Each hit deals the damage. Automatic hits land without a roll.
	Can be blocked	The target is offered a block reaction.
	Saving throw (stat)	With Saving Throws on, the target saves instead.
Critical hits and fumbles	Crit %, Fumble %	The top or bottom of the roll.
	On a crit, On a fumble	A behaviour, such as double damage or a miss.
	Damage on a crit	Used in place of the damage formula.
Damage	Damage formula, Damage type	What it deals, and its type.
	Armour penetration	Normal, Pierce, Rend, True or Arcane, where the game system uses Armor.
	Ignores barriers, Ignores barrier DR, Ignores DR	Skips a barrier, makes a barrier take the raw hit before DR, or skips damage reduction.
Healing	Healing formula	Or Heals by the damage it dealt.
Reaction	It’s a reaction	Offered when someone attacks. Then Blocks all the damage or The user takes the hit instead.
Area	Radius (m)	0 is not an area. Also Shape, Max throw range, Lasts (rounds) and who a lasting area hits.
Weapon	Range bands, quirks, Needs a Charge	Need the game system’s Range Bands and Weapon Quirks.
	Targets	Every opponent in range, everyone in range, or you and your allies.

An attack hits when it beats the defence. A tie misses unless your game system has Ties Hit (Defence Roll) on.

Watch out: Always set a Damage type. A hit with None skips damage reduction and armour altogether.

How abilities reach characters

Everyone: Everyone’s abilities on Game Design › Characters › Base values.
Class: the class’s Abilities, each from a level.
Race: the race’s Abilities.
Perk: the perk’s Gives abilities, from a rank.
Item: the Abilities list in the item editor, for a weapon’s attacks or what a Cast Ability item casts. Equipped items’ abilities count.
One character: an ability given to them directly.

Professions don’t give abilities. Who has it, on the ability’s page, lists everyone, classes, races, items and characters, but not perks. To check one character, open their page: the Abilities card on the Stats & skills tab lists every ability they can use. You can’t delete an ability while anything gives it.

Effects

Effects on an ability

Press Add an effect. On is The target (each hit) or The user (once). Then pick a Behaviour, or leave it at None and pick a Category and the Turns it lasts:

Damage Over Time and Heal Over Time: How much is Ability Output (the ability’s own damage or healing formula), Formula or Flat Value.
Stat Buff and Stat Debuff: a Stat and how much.
Utility categories, such as No Damage, No Dots Effects, No Debuff Effects, Remove All Debuffs and Remove All Dots.

An attack made while sneaking doesn’t put effects on others, and nor does a hit the target saved against.

Behaviours

Game Design › Combat & effects › Effects lists behaviours by category, such as Double Damage, Bleed, Fortify, Stun, Life Drain, Damage Immunity, Purge Debuffs, Thorns and Hard Shield. Open one to see its settings for each game system, and press Edit to change the numbers, such as the amount and turns. Fields under Not read by the game yet do nothing. A game system with no settings of its own borrows another’s, and the page names the ones that get nothing. New behaviours arrive with updates.

Statuses

Statuses it inflicts adds stacking conditions such as Bleeding, Burning and Maimed, with Stacks, For every hit and Hits needed. They need Weapon Statuses on for the game system. Statuses last for the fight and most lose stacks at the end of the holder’s turn.

Timed effects

A timed effect sets stats while a character carries it. Only “set to” lines change stats. In-world crystals give effect #1.

How effects stack

The same effect from the same ability on the same target adds its turns to the one already there. Its strength doesn’t double.
The same behaviour again on the same target in the same fight adds its turns too.
Effects from different abilities are separate, and all of them apply.
Barriers don’t stack. A new barrier replaces the old one only if it’s bigger than what’s left of it.
Statuses add stacks up to each status’s most.

Damage reduction and healing

A hit with a damage type loses, in order, DR, the flat stat for its type (PDRF Physical, MDRF Magical, RDRF Ranged), DRP percent, then the percent for its type (PDRP, MDRP, RDRP). It never goes below 0, and the game system’s Minimum damage per hit applies after. Damage over time isn’t reduced. A barrier takes what’s left after DR, unless its settings have the shield take the raw hit first. Thorns sends damage back through the attacker’s own DR.

Healing loses HR, then HRP percent, then gains HB, then HBP percent. A healer of lower level than the target heals 5% less for each level between them, down to half.

These stats only work if your Stats list has them.

Formulas

On Formulas, press New formula and give it a Name, a Description and the Formula, up to 255 characters. Once you save a change, everything using the formula rolls the new version, and Used by lists what that is. You can’t delete a formula while something uses it.

A formula can hold:

Dice in square brackets: [3d6]. [MEDd4] rolls as many d4s as the character’s MED.
Dice options after a colon: [1d20:advantage], [1d20:disadvantage], [2d6:max], [2d6:min], [1d6:+2].
Stat and skill codes as written on Stats and Skills, and lvl for the character’s level.
Numbers, + - * /, brackets, and floor, ceil, round, min, max, abs and sqrt.

For example, [3d6]+floor(DEX/2) or 8+min(floor(AGI/2),3). A formula is rolled for whoever it belongs to: the user for attack and damage, the target for defence. A word that isn’t a stat, skill or function breaks the formula.

Tip: Codes are case sensitive. dex isn’t DEX, so copy codes from the Stats list.

Test it

In the formula editor, use Try it. Pick a character under Roll as, or leave it blank for your active character, and press Roll. You see the result, the dice, the bonus and every stat it read.
On the ability, Test its formulas has a button for each formula it uses: Attack, Defence, Damage, Crit damage, Charged damage and Healing.
Give the ability to a test character, check their Abilities card, and use it in a practice fight.